Climate Ready: How the MTA is dealing with sweltering New York City subway system
NEW YORK (WABC) -- At Eyewitness News and across all of ABC News, we are launching a new initiative called "Climate Ready," as we look at what our local communities are doing to deal with our changing climate and extreme weather events.
To kick off our series, we delve into an issue that all New Yorkers have dealt with: hot subways.
During the sweltering summer months, the heat within the New York subway system has been called everything from "oppressive" to "the Sahara Desert."
Eyewitness News reporter Anthony Carlo went underground and clocked the temperature on a subway platform at 98 degrees!
The city is well aware of this, and just as we adjust our lives to deal with the changing climate, so too is the MTA.
Tony Watkins has a lengthy title as the MTA's General Superintendent of Car Equipment Emergency Response. In a nutshell, Watkins and his team are tasked with keeping customers cool and comfortable when riding on the subway.
"We have to appreciate, two two-ton units that can do an entire home, that is doing one subway car," Watkins said.
All 6,400 subway cars in the MTA's fleet are equipped with air conditioning units -- units that are inspected several times a day.
"He is (an inspector) going to capture the temperature at each end and in the middle and put it into his handheld device. The device will determine the average temperature and fail or pass the car," Watkins said.
If the temperature is above 75 degrees, the car will fail inspection and it will eventually be taken out of service so the AC can be repaired.
The MTA says its cars have a 99% pass rate.
The A, C, N, Q, W, No. 1 and No. 3 lines have the oldest cars in its fleet and where you're most likely to find broken AC units.
But subway platforms are hot too. Anthony Carlo went from a nice, air-conditioned subway, where it was 75 degrees, to the platform, where the temperature shot up to 90 in a matter of seconds.
Part of the reason the platforms are so hot is, ironically, because the MTA is working to keep the trains cool.
"The air-conditioning system in the subway vents heat into the tunnel and onto the platforms." said Danie Zarrilli, Columbia University's Chief Climate and Sustainability Officer. "This urban heat island effect is exacerbated by the need for the air conditioning that keeps us cool in the trains but it's contributing to the heat that we are feeling in the rest of the system."
When you think about it, the stations are all concrete and metal. There is no green space to moderate and deflect the heat, and while there are no plans to install air conditioning in subway stations, the MTA is leaning into technology.
"It may be 95 degrees in the subway," said Demetrius Crichlow, Interim President of NYC Transit. "If you chose to wait outside, we give you the tools to know when the next train is going to be so you can come down to the system."
----------
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
